Life undone by sin, death undone by Christ

 

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash

When you read the opening chapters of Genesis, one of the things you notice is the incredibly long lives of humanity’s first generations. Adam, 930 years (Genesis 5:5). Seth, 912 years (5:8). Jared, 962 years (5:20). And Methuselah takes the cake at 969 (5:27). 

But by the time you get to chapter 11 of Genesis, a change is taking shape. Shem, Noah’s son, lived 600 years (11:11). Eber lived to 464 (11:17). And by the time you get to Terah, the father of Abram, he lives only 205 years (11:32). That’s still amazing by our reckoning, but it’s also a far cry from Adam’s 930 years. If you move forward in time another 500 years to the days of Moses, we read his words in Psalm 90:10 that, “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty.” This resonates far more closely with our experience. 

What do we see in this? The unwinding nature of sin. God created the world, and in the first chapter of Genesis we read of him bringing order to creation. But when human beings, meant to represent God’s good rule, instead sin through rebellion, order begins to move toward chaos. And death becomes not only a reality, but an ever-nearer reality. Such are the wages of sin (Romans 6:23).

But in the death and resurrection of Christ, this unwinding world is being rewound, Romans 8:19-21 says that this creation which groans under the weight of God’s curse is longing for our revelation - the revelation of the children of God. And that revelation will be of our glory - the glory purchased when the eternal Son of God left heaven’s throne, temporarily laying aside his own glory, that he might live the only perfect human life and thus be the only fitting sacrifice for our sinful rebellion. He came to bear our curse of death. The immortal God became man that he might die - and in doing so, undo death for all who trust in him. Those whom he justified by his death, Romans 8:30 tells us, he also has glorified. This glory is not yet revealed, but as believers this is our firm and solid hope. And when we gather regularly and take of the bread and the cup at the Lord’s table, we proclaim in faith the great promise of salvation, that though all life is undone by sin, for those who trust in Christ, their death has been undone by him. Jesus says in John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.”